First Contact, accidentally
by axg
Summary: The Federation developed unharmed by Earth, in another Quadrant of the Galaxy - and now a recon mission finds our little backwater planet to be incredibly interesting.
1. Information

Hey People, another shot at a fanfic which will turn out to be rather short, but maybe I'll get around to actually completing it this time.

I'll put up the Chapters as I get them written, so please bear with any mistakes I make - especially concerning capitalization.

I'll be going to grab me some time to fix my errors later in the process, when I see this story is going somewhere.

The setting for the following story is a slightly AU version of the Star Trek Universe, changing the setting as there is no Earth (It's place is taken by Random Planet #42 and it's history played out almost exactly like Earth's, including the Characters that were born on Earth in the normal timeline.

The events in this story take place shortly after the events from the Movie Star Trek Nemesis, ca. Earth year 2031.


	2. Prologue

Prologue

The period following the 2010 decommissioning of the Space Shuttle Orbiter was a hard time for NASA, the Spaceflight Agency of the United States of America.

The proposed Shuttle replacement, which was meant to carry Astronauts not only to Orbit, but to the Moon and beyond, went the way of most massive engineering tasks of that era - it came in way over budget, under powered and ultimately - the Year was now 2020 - too late to be really useful for what it was intended.

After the United States lost the capacity to send Astronauts to the International Space Station themselves for nearly a decade after decommissioning of the Shuttle, the only way to reach the Station was by hitch-hiking a ride on russian-made Soyuz- or european-built ARV.. which came at an even higher price - a price the dwindling resources that also ill-fated the Orion Spacecraft and it's two booster Rockets, Ares I and V - was too high for NASA to pay on a regular basis.

This led to the unfavourable situation that the ISS - merely finished by the Year 2010 - never really reached a level of usefulness needed to further justify the immense upkeep of keeping the station manned and running - it got decommissioned only four years after it was finished, and no real innovation was gained from the project.

The Station was de-orbited and broke apart over the Atlantic Ocean in a field of burning debris - this was also the last event of manned space flight that most Americans even noticed, since public interest in exploring Space - nearly reached Zero. The costs were too high, the public sick of "pretty pictures" which cost billions of dollars -

it was time for NASA to accept that their once-glorious achievements were used up in keeping a reason for them to still operate. And so NASA essentially was shut down, save for a few unmanned satellite launches no-one cared about. The built-but-never-used Rockets from the Ares and Orion program were stored up, no-one really thinking they would ever return to them in a Lifetime.

No-one except one man, who was born on the day Man first set foot on the Moon - and he intended to once again fuel interest in spaceflight in the general public with the boldest mission ever untertaken by man - and his company, basing their concept on old NASA research done in 2006 - was only a minute away from gigantic breakthrough in propulsion technology.

The Name of the project?

Antimatter.


	3. Press Conference

It was a beautiful, sunny day in Florida, and the large conference room on the top floor in one of the old NASA Buildings at Kennedy Space Center - now known as "ye olde money burning place" to most Americans - in private hands since the time of the decommissioning of the ISS - was slowly filling with members of the press, as they were promised a "groundbreaking announcement" by Alexander Benning, Founder of SpaceFlight Industries and one of the richest men in the United States. His company never lost the interest in Spaceflight and continued some research projects leftover from the disbanding of NASA, moved in to the old Facilities at Kennedy Space Center and hired almost every Researcher laid off by NASA nearly a decade earlier - led by the strong will and ideals that it's founder pushed forward - to get back to space - and this time, to really mean it.

It was almost noon when he finally entered the conference room and took his place on the podium in front of the audience - everyone silenced, and waited for the "big bang" that was promised to them.

"Ladies and Gentlemen, members of the press, members of the academic circle - in the Name of SpaceFlight Industries, I welcome you to this very halls, where only a decade ago, we almost buried our program for manned spaceflight. Today, on the very same place, I am hereby announcing plans for a bold future for mankind - not only that we shall return to manned spaceflight, that we shall return to the moon and this time not to visit but to stay - but that - to quote a famous man - before this decade is out, we will send not only a man, but a group of people - not to the moon, but to mars, to carry the spirit of exploration and our power as a nation to new frontiers."

Well - this was NOT what most people expected. Some were irritated, some even short of laughing .. there was a good reason manned spaceflight was buried after all. High cost, enormous travel times even in near-earth space.. and now a trip to planet Mars? Seriously? But, before people could burst into laughter and interrupt the speech, Mr. Bennet continued:

"I know, what I am proposing, no, announcing, may sound unrealistic and like a daydream to most of you, especially those that lived through the time when we buried everything here a decade ago. Let me tell you the real reason why we invited you all - as we moved in this facility, we also inherited most of the old NASA research staff and projects - and one project especially catched our eye. It was a feasibility study in using an antimatter reactor for spaceflight propulsion - and yes, it sounded like science fiction to us too. Until we found a way how to safely produce antimatter on a much larger scale than possible today by means like the LHC in Europe - on a scale large and economically viable enough to put it to use. So, today I am announcing that SpaceFlight Industries is currently designing AND buidling the first, man-rated Spaceship capable of travelling to Mars and beyond - currently being built to a mission profile including a 45 day trip to mars, a 90 day stay and a 60 day return trip. Even crew training is already commencing, if we can keep our schedule, it will be ready in less than a year."

Now everybody went silent - that was an even bolder claim than before.. but he sounded serious..

"We will use leftover Rockets from the cancelled Constellation Program to ferry the ship and landing modules - divided in 5 seperate parts for assembly in orbit - to space and to return the astronauts when they get back from their mission - all courtesy of nasa, those heavy lifters are still in remarkable condition."

Following this statement, he unveiled a large, hidden model showing the shape of the ship, and, for the press, much more importantly, featuring it's name in big, bold letters: S.F.I. Endeavour. 


End file.
